Fear of toxins in the air in Texas town

Some blame illnesses on factory emissions

MIDLOTHIAN, Texas — The neighbors introduced themselves hesitantly at first, not by name or street address but by their various ailments.

"I've got breast cancer," said one woman.

"Oh, my husband has a brain tumor," replied the woman sitting next to her.

"My son has Down syndrome," offered a man standing nearby.

"My daughter died last month from an abdominal tumor," a woman said softly. "She was only 19."

Similar introductions rippled through an auditorium in this southwest Dallas suburb one evening last week as more than 500 residents, some in wheelchairs and others with portable oxygen tanks hanging from their shoulders, gathered to ask a question most had only dared whisper: Is something in Midlothian's air or water making them sick?

The evidence is largely anecdotal, and few epidemiological studies have been done. But many residents say they know too many neighbors with cancer, birth defects and lung ailments for it all to be simply a coincidence.

"I know of so many funerals of women in their late 30s and early 40s who died of cancer," said Alexandra Allred, 40, whose 5-year-old son, Tommy, has been hospitalized half a dozen times for acute asthma attacks. "I can't begin to tell you how many kids have asthma, bronchitis, emphysema; how many people have skin problems. I know deep down in my gut, it's got to be the pollutants being put into our air."

The signs here proudly boast that Midlothian is the "Cement Capitol of Texas," a claim bolstered by the three huge cement factories whose smokestacks tower over the town. The companies have brought thousands of jobs and years of prosperity to Midlothian, a thriving bedroom community of about 12,000 whose population is growing at more than 8 percent each year.

But environmentalists say the cement plants are also responsible for some of the worst pollution in the state as their high-temperature kilns pump out millions of pounds of toxic pollutants such as arsenic, cadmium, benzene and dioxins each year.

"There's no way we know what the effect will be of these thousands of chemicals on people's health," said Jim Schermbeck, an environmental activist with a local group called Downwinders at Risk. "Some of these are chemicals that we've never been exposed to before."

What no one can say for certain is whether the pollution is causing unusual health problems among Midlothian's residents.

Officials deny connection

City officials strongly deny that anything is amiss, citing more than two dozen state studies over the last 10 years that failed to find any correlation between pollution from the cement plants and adverse health effects. They insist that toxic emissions from the cement plants remain within the limits set by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

"I wouldn't live here or raise my kids here if I felt there was an issue of safety," said Mayor Boyce Whatley, a 20-year resident. "I think you'll find anecdotal reports of health issues in any community you live in. My grandmother is allergic to perfume. Some people are allergic to dust mites."

Four studies by the Texas Department of State Health Services have examined suspected disease clusters and birth defects in and around Midlothian over the last decade. One found unusual levels of Down syndrome between 1992-94, but a later study found that Down syndrome was "not significantly elevated." And other types of cancer and diseases were found in the studies to be "within normal ranges."

"There have been a lot of allegations--people saying, `I know of someone who has cancer,'" said Dr. Richard Beauchamp, senior medical toxicologist at the state health agency in Austin. "A lot of people's idea of a cancer cluster is if they know someone who has breast cancer and another person who has lung cancer and another who has brain cancer. But all the clusters we've looked at from the Midlothian area failed to have much statistical significance."

Schermbeck, however, faults those health studies because they were based on statistics and computer models rather than actual field research and interviews.

Moreover, environmental groups allege that the "acceptable" levels of pollution permitted by state authorities are set too high in order to benefit industry--a situation that they say led Ellis County, where Midlothian is located, to exceed federal Clean Air Act guidelines last year.

Seeking to stop controls

Despite that lack of compliance with federal air quality standards--a situation that endangers the distribution of federal highway funds here--TXI, the largest cement company in Midlothian, is seeking permission from state authorities to switch off pollution control devices on its largest cement kiln.

TXI officials, who declined to be interviewed for this article, have cited the high cost of operating the pollution controls in their application to state officials for relief.

Environmental groups are opposing the application before regulatory agencies and in the courts.